


Ties

by Macx



Series: Fire and Ice [23]
Category: Knight Rider (1982)
Genre: Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-12
Updated: 2011-05-12
Packaged: 2017-10-19 07:57:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/198635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macx/pseuds/Macx





	Ties

t was a beautiful day. Sunny. Warm. Too good to be here. She looked around, at the people gathered here, a mass of black and dark gray, of suits and dresses. She felt so completely out of place; she shouldn’t be here. But she was. Her eyes came to rest on a tall man in a dark suit, his head bowed over the open grave, and she watched as he tossed a single white rose into the dark hole in the ground. Then he turned and walked back to the others. She had been there already, said her good-byes, wondering why it felt as if she had a million things to say to the silent coffin. When had she last seen her mother? Talked to her? Really talked. Not just meaningless chit-chat over the phone when she had received a call. Or had called to deliver birthday greetings.  
Scenes passed before her eyes, merging with the reality around her, and she again wondered why she had come. Family. It was because of family. The little she had, the part she cherished. And to pay her respect to the one person who had always been there for her, through good times and bad.  
She left the small cemetery with its ornate, ancient headstones along with the other mourners, but not with her family. She walked several steps behind them, not belonging. Her father had made it pretty clear the last time they had talked; and yesterday, when she had stepped off the plane to attend the funeral.  
“Alex?”  
The voice startled her and she looked up. The man next to her smiled. He was maybe half a head taller than her, with the same dark hair that bordered to black, the same brown eyes. She answered the smile with a weak one of her own.  
“Bobby,” she acknowledged him softly.  
“You okay?”  
“Do I look okay?”  
Robert Christopher, her younger brother and pride of her father, sighed deeply. “He’s been getting on your case again, right?”  
“When hasn’t he? He uses every opportunity to tell me how much you make every year, how proud he is to be a double grandfather, and how much an embarrassment I am for him.”  
The words came out harsh and angry; still soft enough only to be heard by her brother.  
“He’s proud of you too, Alex.”  
“Really? And he expresses that how? Asking me if I’m done digging around in the woods by now? Telling me I could be more than a simply government employee? How I could have married some rich guy he knows and be a mother of healthy children? Bobby, he has never agreed with what I do. He never will.”  
Alex felt her breathing quicken, her heart hammering in her chest with the adrenaline rush the anger had ignited. She curled her hands into fists and fought for control. Not far away, she could see her father, a tall, proud man. Bobby was a younger version of him, so very much looking like him. But still so very much different.  
“Alex….” Bobby tried again, but she briskly shook herhead.  
“Leave it, okay?”  
They arrived in the parking lot. Many were already leaving, some in groups in mini-vans, others  alone. Alex smiled at some of the people she recognized, people who openly smiled at her and didn’t give a damn about what her father had said about her. Alex’s startled eyes fell on the black sports car that hadn’t been there before. She looked around but failed to see the driver of the vehicle.  
“Are you coming with us?” Bobby asked. “The two of you could talk, you know. I could talk to Dad.”  
She shook her head again. “No. Not a good idea, believe me. I did my part in this happy family charade. I’ll continue doing it by walking away and not embarrassing him any further.” There was audible acid in her voice.  
“Alex, please!”  
Alex looked at her brother, sadness welling up inside her. “I can’t do it, Bobby. I just can’t. I’m tired of listening to his complaints, how I have no husband, no life, no money. I’m tired of standing aside and smiling at his hurtful remarks, faking amusement and laughing at the jokes he makes at my expense. I love my life, bro. Mom knew and understood, Dad never wanted to and never will. I’m proud to be a ‘measly government drone’. I love being a Ranger. He won’t get me to change just because he says so.”  
Bobby sighed deeply. “Okay, I have to accept that, I guess. How about you come by our place when you’re back in Vancouver? We’d love to have you over for lunch or dinner.”  
Alex smiled the first real smile since she had received the message about her mother’s death. “Sure.”  
“We’ll be back by the day after tomorrow.”  
She nodded. “Give me till Friday.”  
“Lunch on Saturday?”  
“You’re on.”  
With that she walked over to the black Stealth, wondering where Nick was. Last she had heard from Michael was that he had gone undercover on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean. The driver’s door clicked open and, mystified, Alex climbed in.  
“Hello, Dr. Christopher,” Karr greeted her calmly.  
“Don’t tell me you are here alone,” she managed, surprised.  
“Okay, I won’t.”  
The engine started and Alex automatically held on to the steering wheel. Karr drove away from the small cemetery. The Stealth went onto Highway 16 West and accelerated. For a while, there was only silence. Alex watched the world rush by as Karr easily broke the speed limit. She really didn’t care. She just wanted to get away from her family and the oppressing past that was Hazelton.  
“What are you doing here, Karr? Where’s Nick?” she finally asked.  
“Still undercover. He didn’t need me. Physically,” Karr added.  
“So…. you decided to go all the way up to Hazelton to give me a ride?” She was a bit perplexed.  
“Affirmative.”  
“Why?”  
Karr was silent for a moment. “I thought you might appreciate the company,” he then answered calmly. “Nick was unable to be here.”  
She was stunned. Completely and utterly speechless. Alex had called Nick after she had arranged her trip up to Terrace and Hazelton for the funeral, but only Karr had answered the phone. Nick had been too deep undercover by the time to do it himself.  
“He sent you?”  
“Indirectly.”  
“Thanks,” she said softly. “Uh, where are we going?”  
“Where do you want to go?” Karr asked back.  
“I… I don’t know. I have a hotel room in Terrace, but…. I don’t feel like going there just yet.”  
“It will be another hour until we reach city limits.”  
Taken Karr’s speed, that was a good estimate for a trip of nearly one hundred fity kilometers. Alex just kept looking at the landscape.  
It was a lonely trip, no other town in sight, nothing but the endless highway and the mountains that kept them company. The river was usually in sight and she took a measure of comfort from the calmness of nature around them. This stretch of highway wasn’t called scenic in any travel guide, but for her, it was enough.

*

Karr drove though Terrace and kept on going on the winding highway until Alex told him to stop. Overlooking the Skeena river was a small rest stop, shielded from the passing traffic by trees, open toward the water. Alex settled on one of the picnic tables, feet resting on the bench. Except for the occasional car or RV she was alone. No other sound but the soft gurgle of water or the calls of birds disturbed the serene landscape.  
“Is Nick okay?” she asked after a while.  
“Perfectly. He’s currently skulking around the machinery room on an oil platform in the middle of the Atlantic, searching for clues of sabotage.”  
Alex smiled dimly. “I see why you couldn’t come along.”  
“He would have been here, Dr. Christopher,” Karr added. “If it had been at all possible, he would have come.”  
“I know that, Karr. You don’t have to apologize for him. I’m glad you’re here, though. At least I have someone to talk to.”  
“With your family around, I thought that wouldn’t be a problem.”  
She laughed wryly. “If you count shouting matches or icy silence conversation, yes, I do believe my family would suffice then.”  
“I fail to understand…”  
“My father and I… we don’t get along very well.” She ran a hand thought her hair. “Who am I kidding? We don’t get along at all.”  
“Why?”  
“Because I betrayed my heritage, my calling? Because I didn’t meet expectations?”  
Karr was silent. Then he said, „What is your calling?“  
Alex sighed softly. “Wish I knew, Karr. Wish I knew. Something greater than what I am.” Her eyes held a distant expression as she watched the river. “My brother is the pride and joy of the family. He went to the university, was among the best of each of his classes, was hired by a large business corporation, is married to a career woman, has two wonderful children, owns a huge house…. He is everything a family would want their child to be. Nothing like me. I’m an embarrassment.”  
Karr was puzzled for a second. “I fail to see the reason why this should be so.”  
Alex sighed. “Do you know what I am?”  
More puzzlement. “I do not understand your question.”  
“I have a multi-cultural background, Karr. My mother is of Gitksan blood. Native American. Her mother was Gitskan, her father a white man. Just like my father. Mom and he met at college and fell in love. We lived in Hazelton for a while, but Dad moved to Vancouver because of his job, then to Victoria and back again. I grew up learning about my mother’s culture, about my heritage, and to be proud of what I am. My father wanted us to achieve things, make something out of ourselves….. ‘become someone important in society’, as he always put it.”  
Alex played with the hem of her shirt, shaking her head.  
“I chose to follow my life-long passion. I became a geologist. Rocks and dust and few options to be something other than a teacher or researcher. Mom understood. Dad… he didn’t. He wanted me to study until I found the right guy to marry, preferably with a load of money, then have a bunch of kids and make him a happy grandfather. He told me that being a geologist and digging around in mud would be close to being unemployed. I accomplished none of his dreams.”  
“You accomplished your own dreams.”  
She shot the Stealth a surprised look. “Yes. Yes, I did,” Alex confessed.  
“So why do you seek your father’s approval?”  
“Because it would feel good, Karr. It helps to know that your parents are proud of you. Even just a bit. My father told me how lucky we are to have education, how we might have withered away in Hazelton if he hadn’t moved to the big city. He loved my mother, but he didn’t want his children to be half-breeds in a tourist village, achieving no more than a high school degree.” She snorted bitterly.  
“My so-called father never showed his pride either,” Karr said softly, almost sadly. “I never met his expectations.”  
Alex looked at the car, hands clasped in front of her. In a way Karr felt with her. He knew what it meant to be the focus of someone’s expectations, only to be cast away because he didn’t live up to those expectations. He also had a younger sibling who incorporated all the dreams of his creator, who had been given what had been denied to Karr, but while it had nearly driven him insane in the past, he accepted it now. He knew who he was, what he could do, and he had someone he shared his existence with. Someone who appreciated him for what he was, not what he should be.  
“He made mistakes in your programming.”  
“As did your father.”  
She laughed, shaking her head. “If you want to put it that way, yes. He didn’t program me correctly.”  
“My father sought the mistakes in me. He made me responsible,” Karr went on. “I couldn’t escape my program; I did what he had asked me to do, and I was a failure in his eyes. I was shut down.”  
“And I was shut out. I didn’t follow his way and he simply dropped me out of his life. Two sides of the same coin, hm?”  
“It appears so.”  
Alex let her eyes fall onto the river again. It had a rather calming effect. “It’s not like my father’s opinion is everything to me, but it would have helped. You know how many times he asked me about my love life? If I finally had a boy-friend? If I’m planning for a family? A dozen times throughout every call I made in the last ten years. It gets old and is very repetitive.” She lowered her eyes to stare at the rough woodwork of the bench she sat on. “And he’s right in oh-so many ways, just like he is wrong in many others.”  
“You have a family, Alex,” Karr said softly.  
She looked at him, the black prow so close to her that she could touch it. “Nick?”  
“As well as Michael Knight, Kitt and Dr. Barstow.”  
“You,” she added, smiling.  
There was an audible pause and she wished Karr had a scanner to have something to get a reading from. Like this, he was completely unreadable.  
“You never told your father,” Karr finally said.  
“About Nick? What is there to tell? How would I ever be able to explain it? I’m in love with a former secret agent who has no history, who doesn’t actually exist and whose job is questionable at best?”  
“It would be a start.” Amusement floated in the dark voice.  
Alex chuckled. “Uh-huh. He wouldn’t believe me. I’ll always be the older child who never achieved anything, while Bobby is the prized son who has everything. I love my brother, Karr. I really do. I’m proud of him, I love the kids, and Angie and I get along just fine. It’s just when my Dad’s around… things go downhill.” She slid off the picnic table and stretched her legs. “We should go back. I promised Bobby to visit for lunch on Saturday and I won’t miss it. We see each other way too rarely anyway.”  
“Do you already have a flight?”  
Alex smiled. “No, I was planning to take the ferry from Prince Rupert.” She sat down on the soft leather seats. “Care to accompany me?”  
“Ferry? A ship?”  
“A small one.”  
There was a brief silence. “The things I do,” Karr grumbled.  
She chuckled. “Thank you, my friend. It’s appreciated.”

* * *

Alex arrived on time Thursday night. Karr drove off the ferry, muttering to himself how much he loved to be back on firm ground, and she smiled gently. She really did appreciate his company. It made things easier. The brief conversation about her parents had helped immensely. Then there had been frequent talks throughout the ferry ride. Karr had been overly nervous that the ferry might sink, even though he would deny ever feeling such fear to anyone. Sitting in one of the many chairs on deck, Alex had enjoyed the sun and the incredible landscape.  
She spent the night in a small motel, sleeping like dead. They drove through Friday and arrived in Victoria around midnight. Alex checked into another hotel, close to her brother’s place.

* * *

Lunch was a friendly family affair and Alex felt herself relax as her brother told her about their latest vacation, as Monica showed her what she had received for her birthday two weeks ago, as Thomas insisted she tell him what it was like to be a Ranger, and as Angie showed her around the newly arranged garden. She enjoyed the family time, away from the critical looks of her father, away from the pressure. She played with the two kids, told them stories of her ‘adventures’ as a Ranger, and finally found herself on the front porch overlooking the quiet dead-end street with a coffee in her hands.  
Bobby sat beside her, long legs outstretched, eyes on the black car she had arrived with.  
“Nice car,” he commented.  
“Not mine,” Alex chuckled. “I borrowed it from a friend.”  
“Must be a mighty good friend to leave you with this expensive baby.”  
She smiled into her cup of coffee and her brother chuckled.  
“Okay, very good and close friend, I take it,” he teased.  
“Bobby….”  
“Hey, take it easy. I’m not Dad!”  
She grew somber. “No, you are definitely not. Thanks for the invitation, bro. I appreciate it.”  
He sighed. “Sorry, didn’t want to spoil the mood.”  
She shook her head. “No, it’s okay.”  
“He asked where you were.”  
Alex shot her brother a cynical look. “Had no other target?”  
“Alex….”  
“No, leave it, Bobby. You know how it is. Dad doesn’t approve of what I did. He didn’t like my choice of subjects when I went to college, he refused to help me through university unless I went into a,  and I quote, ‘more lucrative business than digging around rocks’, and he didn’t even show up for graduation. He would have laughed over my doctorate if it hadn’t been for the presence of family and friends at the time, and you really don’t want to know what he said when I joined the Rangers.”  
“Alex, you know he loves you, too….”  
“No, Bobby, I don’t. I know that Mr. Arthur J. Christopher is a very successful businessman, that he owns his houses and has money to burn. I know he boasts with his successful son and omits he has a daughter who does demeaning government work. I know he stopped calling me for holidays or birthdays when I entered college and refused to yield to his will. I know he tried to keep me from coming to Hazelton. Hell, he even denies me my family!”  
Bobby hung his head and sighed. He knew there was a rift the size of Grand Canyon between his sister and his father. He had tried to help bridge it, but his father had always refused.  
“I know it’s hard for you, Bobby,” Alex went on. “But it’ll never change. Whatever you say, he won’t accept it. I could be head of the whole damn Ranger organization and he’d still find flaws enough to degrade my work. Leave it as it is. I have with it for nearly two decades now.”  
He took her hand and squeezed it. “I know you’re doing great work, Alex, and I know you love what you do. And whoever owns that car, well, I think he appreciates you as well.”  
Alex shot him a startled look, then snorted. “I have to talk to Angie about letting you watch soap operas, bro.”  
Bobby only smiled knowingly.

She said her good-byes to the family a few hours later. It was already getting dark, but she had declined a dinner invitation. Alex wanted to get back and head home. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts. Bobby hugged her as they stood out front, just a few feet away from the black Stealth.  
“Don’t be a stranger,” he said softly.  
Alex smiled. “Come and visit,” she invited him.  
“Don’t want to drop in unannounced and embarrass the hell out of you.” He gave her a suggestive look.  
She laughed, shaking her head. “Bobby….”  
He smiled. “Hey, relax, sis. I’m happy you found someone and even if you keep him a secret… it becomes you.”  
Alex gave him a slightly stunned look. “Uh…” she managed.  
Bobby smiled. “Take care.”  
“You too.”  
Alex let Karr handle the driving as they pulled away from the curbs. She gazed into the rearview mirror, watching the figure of her brother grow smaller and smaller. She sighed. It had felt good to visit her family, the only part of her family that didn’t want to change her. That accepted her. That wanted her. She missed her mother, despite not having seen much of her. She missed just having the security of her being there for her. Alex swallowed a lump in her throat, unconsciously sinking deeper into the leather seats.  
“Dr. Christopher? Alex?”  
“Hm?” She pulled herself away from the morbid line of thoughts.  
“Are you okay?”  
Karr’s voice was unusually soft and gentle. She noticed that the interior of the car had warmed up slightly, chasing away the chill, but unable to thaw the icy fist in her stomach.  
“I …. will be,” she answered. “Thanks.”  
Alex gazed into the approaching darkness, wishing for once that she could return home to someone waiting for her. She didn’t want to be alone, but right now she was. Nick wouldn’t be able to be there and Karr was, she had to confess, a poor substitute. She loved him, but he couldn’t make up for the warmth of a human embrace.

*

They were at her townhouse two days later. Alex had not returned home immediately and Karr had not asked any questions. He had let her drive the Stealth wherever she wanted to go, a sign of great trust. Finally she had returned.  
And Karr had stayed. It was strange; strangely comforting, she mused. The Stealth was parked in her driveway and she found herself sitting in the warm leather interior more often than not, talking. About everything. And Karr listened. Just listened. It was what marked their friendship, her trust, his acceptance, their understanding.

Three days after their return, her late evening visitor appeared, walking into the house, using the key he had been given. Alex had been sitting curled up on the couch, watching TV, the fireplace crackling with a lively flame.  
“Nick.”  
It wasn’t a question. Alex didn’t know why he was here, how he had made it. She was simply glad he was there.  
MacKenzie looked as he always did, dressed in simple, dark clothes, pale blue eyes sharp and hard. But their expression softened almost immediately when he looked at Alex, and she saw the warmth return, the humanity resurface, and part of Nick was left at the doorstep.  
She felt his arms around her, holding her, and she dug her fingers into the black shirt, feeling his arms around her in turn. Nick silently held her, his face buried in her hair, radiating strength and support. Alex didn’t know how long they stood there, but it was simply good to have him here, to be with him, even if it might just last an hour.  
“Karr told you?”  
He probably had, Alex mused, not the least bit disturbed by it. Karr and Nick, for all their individualistic natures, were one.  
“Yes. Wish I could have been there.”  
She chuckled, still keeping her face buried in his shirt. “It wouldn’t have changed a thing.”  
“I could have acted as your rich boy-friend-soon-to-be-husband for a day?” he teased.  
Alex looked up, saw the humor dancing in those normally hard and unyielding eyes, and had to smile. “You’d only have to act the ‘soon to be’ part,” came her light reply.  
Nick studied her, searching for something, and she opened up, letting him see. Alex had no illusions about marriage, and truth be told, she had never wanted to marry. She loved Nick, she loved their relationship, she would be there for him to the end, and the ring wouldn’t change anything. He would never ‘pop the question’, but he didn’t have to. What connected them ran deeper than any vows.  
His lips met hers, expressing what felt so hard for him to put into words, and she acknowledged it her own way. When they parted, Alex pulled him gently toward the couch and he let her, sinking down, pulling her into his embrace again.  
“Thank you for coming,” Alex said after a while of mutual, comfortable silence.  
He stroked over her arm and side. “I’ll always be there, one way or the other.”  
It was a monumental promise, something Nick didn’t say lightly. He was Kitt and Michael’s self-appointed guardian, just like he was her partner in everything.  
“I know,” she whispered. “Thanks.”  
Her father would probably never know, her mother had never known, and her brother... he knew that there was someone, but she would never drag Nick along to Bobby and the family. If he came freely, yes, of course. But this was her life and Nick was no trophy to show around.  
It was their life.  
Weird as it was. Including an AI bonded to her lover, another AI connected to the first, and another man who shared the same link to a computer as Nick.  
Yes, it was weird, but it was her world.  
And she loved it just the way it was.

Outside, Karr settled down with a satisfied rumble. His driver was where he was needed, and it didn’t include hanging upside down on a thin wire and stealing something. Nick’s presence inside him changed, mellowing, becoming more supple, less edgy, and Karr smiled as the bluish light of his partner’s ‘soul’ seemed to glow from within.  
They would stay for a while. He didn’t mind. He was actually glad. Alex needed Nick, and Nick needed to be there for her, be someone else, let part of his guard down. Karr would watch over both of them and it felt very good to be needed this way.  
The blue light intensified again and Karr’s smile turned a bit more sarcastic.  
Well, not for that, he mused and erected a basic block. Not for this. Nick was very well able to perform on his own.  
Another block was added to the first.  
Karr chuckled darkly and turned his attention away from his now otherwise occupied driver, doing a system check instead.  
Much safer.

It was a beautiful day. Sunny. Warm. Too good to be here. She looked around, at the people gathered here, a mass of black and dark gray, of suits and dresses. She felt so completely out of place; she shouldn’t be here. But she was. Her eyes came to rest on a tall man in a dark suit, his head bowed over the open grave, and she watched as he tossed a single white rose into the dark hole in the ground. Then he turned and walked back to the others. She had been there already, said her good-byes, wondering why it felt as if she had a million things to say to the silent coffin. When had she last seen her mother? Talked to her? Really talked. Not just meaningless chit-chat over the phone when she had received a call. Or had called to deliver birthday greetings.  
Scenes passed before her eyes, merging with the reality around her, and she again wondered why she had come. Family. It was because of family. The little she had, the part she cherished. And to pay her respect to the one person who had always been there for her, through good times and bad.  
She left the small cemetery with its ornate, ancient headstones along with the other mourners, but not with her family. She walked several steps behind them, not belonging. Her father had made it pretty clear the last time they had talked; and yesterday, when she had stepped off the plane to attend the funeral.  
“Alex?”  
The voice startled her and she looked up. The man next to her smiled. He was maybe half a head taller than her, with the same dark hair that bordered to black, the same brown eyes. She answered the smile with a weak one of her own.  
“Bobby,” she acknowledged him softly.  
“You okay?”  
“Do I look okay?”  
Robert Christopher, her younger brother and pride of her father, sighed deeply. “He’s been getting on your case again, right?”  
“When hasn’t he? He uses every opportunity to tell me how much you make every year, how proud he is to be a double grandfather, and how much an embarrassment I am for him.”  
The words came out harsh and angry; still soft enough only to be heard by her brother.  
“He’s proud of you too, Alex.”  
“Really? And he expresses that how? Asking me if I’m done digging around in the woods by now? Telling me I could be more than a simply government employee? How I could have married some rich guy he knows and be a mother of healthy children? Bobby, he has never agreed with what I do. He never will.”  
Alex felt her breathing quicken, her heart hammering in her chest with the adrenaline rush the anger had ignited. She curled her hands into fists and fought for control. Not far away, she could see her father, a tall, proud man. Bobby was a younger version of him, so very much looking like him. But still so very much different.  
“Alex….” Bobby tried again, but she briskly shook herhead.  
“Leave it, okay?”  
They arrived in the parking lot. Many were already leaving, some in groups in mini-vans, others  alone. Alex smiled at some of the people she recognized, people who openly smiled at her and didn’t give a damn about what her father had said about her. Alex’s startled eyes fell on the black sports car that hadn’t been there before. She looked around but failed to see the driver of the vehicle.  
“Are you coming with us?” Bobby asked. “The two of you could talk, you know. I could talk to Dad.”  
She shook her head again. “No. Not a good idea, believe me. I did my part in this happy family charade. I’ll continue doing it by walking away and not embarrassing him any further.” There was audible acid in her voice.  
“Alex, please!”  
Alex looked at her brother, sadness welling up inside her. “I can’t do it, Bobby. I just can’t. I’m tired of listening to his complaints, how I have no husband, no life, no money. I’m tired of standing aside and smiling at his hurtful remarks, faking amusement and laughing at the jokes he makes at my expense. I love my life, bro. Mom knew and understood, Dad never wanted to and never will. I’m proud to be a ‘measly government drone’. I love being a Ranger. He won’t get me to change just because he says so.”  
Bobby sighed deeply. “Okay, I have to accept that, I guess. How about you come by our place when you’re back in Vancouver? We’d love to have you over for lunch or dinner.”  
Alex smiled the first real smile since she had received the message about her mother’s death. “Sure.”  
“We’ll be back by the day after tomorrow.”  
She nodded. “Give me till Friday.”  
“Lunch on Saturday?”  
“You’re on.”  
With that she walked over to the black Stealth, wondering where Nick was. Last she had heard from Michael was that he had gone undercover on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean. The driver’s door clicked open and, mystified, Alex climbed in.  
“Hello, Dr. Christopher,” Karr greeted her calmly.  
“Don’t tell me you are here alone,” she managed, surprised.  
“Okay, I won’t.”  
The engine started and Alex automatically held on to the steering wheel. Karr drove away from the small cemetery. The Stealth went onto Highway 16 West and accelerated. For a while, there was only silence. Alex watched the world rush by as Karr easily broke the speed limit. She really didn’t care. She just wanted to get away from her family and the oppressing past that was Hazelton.  
“What are you doing here, Karr? Where’s Nick?” she finally asked.  
“Still undercover. He didn’t need me. Physically,” Karr added.  
“So…. you decided to go all the way up to Hazelton to give me a ride?” She was a bit perplexed.  
“Affirmative.”  
“Why?”  
Karr was silent for a moment. “I thought you might appreciate the company,” he then answered calmly. “Nick was unable to be here.”  
She was stunned. Completely and utterly speechless. Alex had called Nick after she had arranged her trip up to Terrace and Hazelton for the funeral, but only Karr had answered the phone. Nick had been too deep undercover by the time to do it himself.  
“He sent you?”  
“Indirectly.”  
“Thanks,” she said softly. “Uh, where are we going?”  
“Where do you want to go?” Karr asked back.  
“I… I don’t know. I have a hotel room in Terrace, but…. I don’t feel like going there just yet.”  
“It will be another hour until we reach city limits.”  
Taken Karr’s speed, that was a good estimate for a trip of nearly one hundred fity kilometers. Alex just kept looking at the landscape.  
It was a lonely trip, no other town in sight, nothing but the endless highway and the mountains that kept them company. The river was usually in sight and she took a measure of comfort from the calmness of nature around them. This stretch of highway wasn’t called scenic in any travel guide, but for her, it was enough.

*

Karr drove though Terrace and kept on going on the winding highway until Alex told him to stop. Overlooking the Skeena river was a small rest stop, shielded from the passing traffic by trees, open toward the water. Alex settled on one of the picnic tables, feet resting on the bench. Except for the occasional car or RV she was alone. No other sound but the soft gurgle of water or the calls of birds disturbed the serene landscape.  
“Is Nick okay?” she asked after a while.  
“Perfectly. He’s currently skulking around the machinery room on an oil platform in the middle of the Atlantic, searching for clues of sabotage.”  
Alex smiled dimly. “I see why you couldn’t come along.”  
“He would have been here, Dr. Christopher,” Karr added. “If it had been at all possible, he would have come.”  
“I know that, Karr. You don’t have to apologize for him. I’m glad you’re here, though. At least I have someone to talk to.”  
“With your family around, I thought that wouldn’t be a problem.”  
She laughed wryly. “If you count shouting matches or icy silence conversation, yes, I do believe my family would suffice then.”  
“I fail to understand…”  
“My father and I… we don’t get along very well.” She ran a hand thought her hair. “Who am I kidding? We don’t get along at all.”  
“Why?”  
“Because I betrayed my heritage, my calling? Because I didn’t meet expectations?”  
Karr was silent. Then he said, „What is your calling?“  
Alex sighed softly. “Wish I knew, Karr. Wish I knew. Something greater than what I am.” Her eyes held a distant expression as she watched the river. “My brother is the pride and joy of the family. He went to the university, was among the best of each of his classes, was hired by a large business corporation, is married to a career woman, has two wonderful children, owns a huge house…. He is everything a family would want their child to be. Nothing like me. I’m an embarrassment.”  
Karr was puzzled for a second. “I fail to see the reason why this should be so.”  
Alex sighed. “Do you know what I am?”  
More puzzlement. “I do not understand your question.”  
“I have a multi-cultural background, Karr. My mother is of Gitksan blood. Native American. Her mother was Gitskan, her father a white man. Just like my father. Mom and he met at college and fell in love. We lived in Hazelton for a while, but Dad moved to Vancouver because of his job, then to Victoria and back again. I grew up learning about my mother’s culture, about my heritage, and to be proud of what I am. My father wanted us to achieve things, make something out of ourselves….. ‘become someone important in society’, as he always put it.”  
Alex played with the hem of her shirt, shaking her head.  
“I chose to follow my life-long passion. I became a geologist. Rocks and dust and few options to be something other than a teacher or researcher. Mom understood. Dad… he didn’t. He wanted me to study until I found the right guy to marry, preferably with a load of money, then have a bunch of kids and make him a happy grandfather. He told me that being a geologist and digging around in mud would be close to being unemployed. I accomplished none of his dreams.”  
“You accomplished your own dreams.”  
She shot the Stealth a surprised look. “Yes. Yes, I did,” Alex confessed.  
“So why do you seek your father’s approval?”  
“Because it would feel good, Karr. It helps to know that your parents are proud of you. Even just a bit. My father told me how lucky we are to have education, how we might have withered away in Hazelton if he hadn’t moved to the big city. He loved my mother, but he didn’t want his children to be half-breeds in a tourist village, achieving no more than a high school degree.” She snorted bitterly.  
“My so-called father never showed his pride either,” Karr said softly, almost sadly. “I never met his expectations.”  
Alex looked at the car, hands clasped in front of her. In a way Karr felt with her. He knew what it meant to be the focus of someone’s expectations, only to be cast away because he didn’t live up to those expectations. He also had a younger sibling who incorporated all the dreams of his creator, who had been given what had been denied to Karr, but while it had nearly driven him insane in the past, he accepted it now. He knew who he was, what he could do, and he had someone he shared his existence with. Someone who appreciated him for what he was, not what he should be.  
“He made mistakes in your programming.”  
“As did your father.”  
She laughed, shaking her head. “If you want to put it that way, yes. He didn’t program me correctly.”  
“My father sought the mistakes in me. He made me responsible,” Karr went on. “I couldn’t escape my program; I did what he had asked me to do, and I was a failure in his eyes. I was shut down.”  
“And I was shut out. I didn’t follow his way and he simply dropped me out of his life. Two sides of the same coin, hm?”  
“It appears so.”  
Alex let her eyes fall onto the river again. It had a rather calming effect. “It’s not like my father’s opinion is everything to me, but it would have helped. You know how many times he asked me about my love life? If I finally had a boy-friend? If I’m planning for a family? A dozen times throughout every call I made in the last ten years. It gets old and is very repetitive.” She lowered her eyes to stare at the rough woodwork of the bench she sat on. “And he’s right in oh-so many ways, just like he is wrong in many others.”  
“You have a family, Alex,” Karr said softly.  
She looked at him, the black prow so close to her that she could touch it. “Nick?”  
“As well as Michael Knight, Kitt and Dr. Barstow.”  
“You,” she added, smiling.  
There was an audible pause and she wished Karr had a scanner to have something to get a reading from. Like this, he was completely unreadable.  
“You never told your father,” Karr finally said.  
“About Nick? What is there to tell? How would I ever be able to explain it? I’m in love with a former secret agent who has no history, who doesn’t actually exist and whose job is questionable at best?”  
“It would be a start.” Amusement floated in the dark voice.  
Alex chuckled. “Uh-huh. He wouldn’t believe me. I’ll always be the older child who never achieved anything, while Bobby is the prized son who has everything. I love my brother, Karr. I really do. I’m proud of him, I love the kids, and Angie and I get along just fine. It’s just when my Dad’s around… things go downhill.” She slid off the picnic table and stretched her legs. “We should go back. I promised Bobby to visit for lunch on Saturday and I won’t miss it. We see each other way too rarely anyway.”  
“Do you already have a flight?”  
Alex smiled. “No, I was planning to take the ferry from Prince Rupert.” She sat down on the soft leather seats. “Care to accompany me?”  
“Ferry? A ship?”  
“A small one.”  
There was a brief silence. “The things I do,” Karr grumbled.  
She chuckled. “Thank you, my friend. It’s appreciated.”

* * *

Alex arrived on time Thursday night. Karr drove off the ferry, muttering to himself how much he loved to be back on firm ground, and she smiled gently. She really did appreciate his company. It made things easier. The brief conversation about her parents had helped immensely. Then there had been frequent talks throughout the ferry ride. Karr had been overly nervous that the ferry might sink, even though he would deny ever feeling such fear to anyone. Sitting in one of the many chairs on deck, Alex had enjoyed the sun and the incredible landscape.  
She spent the night in a small motel, sleeping like dead. They drove through Friday and arrived in Victoria around midnight. Alex checked into another hotel, close to her brother’s place.

* * *

Lunch was a friendly family affair and Alex felt herself relax as her brother told her about their latest vacation, as Monica showed her what she had received for her birthday two weeks ago, as Thomas insisted she tell him what it was like to be a Ranger, and as Angie showed her around the newly arranged garden. She enjoyed the family time, away from the critical looks of her father, away from the pressure. She played with the two kids, told them stories of her ‘adventures’ as a Ranger, and finally found herself on the front porch overlooking the quiet dead-end street with a coffee in her hands.  
Bobby sat beside her, long legs outstretched, eyes on the black car she had arrived with.  
“Nice car,” he commented.  
“Not mine,” Alex chuckled. “I borrowed it from a friend.”  
“Must be a mighty good friend to leave you with this expensive baby.”  
She smiled into her cup of coffee and her brother chuckled.  
“Okay, very good and close friend, I take it,” he teased.  
“Bobby….”  
“Hey, take it easy. I’m not Dad!”  
She grew somber. “No, you are definitely not. Thanks for the invitation, bro. I appreciate it.”  
He sighed. “Sorry, didn’t want to spoil the mood.”  
She shook her head. “No, it’s okay.”  
“He asked where you were.”  
Alex shot her brother a cynical look. “Had no other target?”  
“Alex….”  
“No, leave it, Bobby. You know how it is. Dad doesn’t approve of what I did. He didn’t like my choice of subjects when I went to college, he refused to help me through university unless I went into a,  and I quote, ‘more lucrative business than digging around rocks’, and he didn’t even show up for graduation. He would have laughed over my doctorate if it hadn’t been for the presence of family and friends at the time, and you really don’t want to know what he said when I joined the Rangers.”  
“Alex, you know he loves you, too….”  
“No, Bobby, I don’t. I know that Mr. Arthur J. Christopher is a very successful businessman, that he owns his houses and has money to burn. I know he boasts with his successful son and omits he has a daughter who does demeaning government work. I know he stopped calling me for holidays or birthdays when I entered college and refused to yield to his will. I know he tried to keep me from coming to Hazelton. Hell, he even denies me my family!”  
Bobby hung his head and sighed. He knew there was a rift the size of Grand Canyon between his sister and his father. He had tried to help bridge it, but his father had always refused.  
“I know it’s hard for you, Bobby,” Alex went on. “But it’ll never change. Whatever you say, he won’t accept it. I could be head of the whole damn Ranger organization and he’d still find flaws enough to degrade my work. Leave it as it is. I have with it for nearly two decades now.”  
He took her hand and squeezed it. “I know you’re doing great work, Alex, and I know you love what you do. And whoever owns that car, well, I think he appreciates you as well.”  
Alex shot him a startled look, then snorted. “I have to talk to Angie about letting you watch soap operas, bro.”  
Bobby only smiled knowingly.

She said her good-byes to the family a few hours later. It was already getting dark, but she had declined a dinner invitation. Alex wanted to get back and head home. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts. Bobby hugged her as they stood out front, just a few feet away from the black Stealth.  
“Don’t be a stranger,” he said softly.  
Alex smiled. “Come and visit,” she invited him.  
“Don’t want to drop in unannounced and embarrass the hell out of you.” He gave her a suggestive look.  
She laughed, shaking her head. “Bobby….”  
He smiled. “Hey, relax, sis. I’m happy you found someone and even if you keep him a secret… it becomes you.”  
Alex gave him a slightly stunned look. “Uh…” she managed.  
Bobby smiled. “Take care.”  
“You too.”  
Alex let Karr handle the driving as they pulled away from the curbs. She gazed into the rearview mirror, watching the figure of her brother grow smaller and smaller. She sighed. It had felt good to visit her family, the only part of her family that didn’t want to change her. That accepted her. That wanted her. She missed her mother, despite not having seen much of her. She missed just having the security of her being there for her. Alex swallowed a lump in her throat, unconsciously sinking deeper into the leather seats.  
“Dr. Christopher? Alex?”  
“Hm?” She pulled herself away from the morbid line of thoughts.  
“Are you okay?”  
Karr’s voice was unusually soft and gentle. She noticed that the interior of the car had warmed up slightly, chasing away the chill, but unable to thaw the icy fist in her stomach.  
“I …. will be,” she answered. “Thanks.”  
Alex gazed into the approaching darkness, wishing for once that she could return home to someone waiting for her. She didn’t want to be alone, but right now she was. Nick wouldn’t be able to be there and Karr was, she had to confess, a poor substitute. She loved him, but he couldn’t make up for the warmth of a human embrace.

*

They were at her townhouse two days later. Alex had not returned home immediately and Karr had not asked any questions. He had let her drive the Stealth wherever she wanted to go, a sign of great trust. Finally she had returned.  
And Karr had stayed. It was strange; strangely comforting, she mused. The Stealth was parked in her driveway and she found herself sitting in the warm leather interior more often than not, talking. About everything. And Karr listened. Just listened. It was what marked their friendship, her trust, his acceptance, their understanding.

Three days after their return, her late evening visitor appeared, walking into the house, using the key he had been given. Alex had been sitting curled up on the couch, watching TV, the fireplace crackling with a lively flame.  
“Nick.”  
It wasn’t a question. Alex didn’t know why he was here, how he had made it. She was simply glad he was there.  
MacKenzie looked as he always did, dressed in simple, dark clothes, pale blue eyes sharp and hard. But their expression softened almost immediately when he looked at Alex, and she saw the warmth return, the humanity resurface, and part of Nick was left at the doorstep.  
She felt his arms around her, holding her, and she dug her fingers into the black shirt, feeling his arms around her in turn. Nick silently held her, his face buried in her hair, radiating strength and support. Alex didn’t know how long they stood there, but it was simply good to have him here, to be with him, even if it might just last an hour.  
“Karr told you?”  
He probably had, Alex mused, not the least bit disturbed by it. Karr and Nick, for all their individualistic natures, were one.  
“Yes. Wish I could have been there.”  
She chuckled, still keeping her face buried in his shirt. “It wouldn’t have changed a thing.”  
“I could have acted as your rich boy-friend-soon-to-be-husband for a day?” he teased.  
Alex looked up, saw the humor dancing in those normally hard and unyielding eyes, and had to smile. “You’d only have to act the ‘soon to be’ part,” came her light reply.  
Nick studied her, searching for something, and she opened up, letting him see. Alex had no illusions about marriage, and truth be told, she had never wanted to marry. She loved Nick, she loved their relationship, she would be there for him to the end, and the ring wouldn’t change anything. He would never ‘pop the question’, but he didn’t have to. What connected them ran deeper than any vows.  
His lips met hers, expressing what felt so hard for him to put into words, and she acknowledged it her own way. When they parted, Alex pulled him gently toward the couch and he let her, sinking down, pulling her into his embrace again.  
“Thank you for coming,” Alex said after a while of mutual, comfortable silence.  
He stroked over her arm and side. “I’ll always be there, one way or the other.”  
It was a monumental promise, something Nick didn’t say lightly. He was Kitt and Michael’s self-appointed guardian, just like he was her partner in everything.  
“I know,” she whispered. “Thanks.”  
Her father would probably never know, her mother had never known, and her brother... he knew that there was someone, but she would never drag Nick along to Bobby and the family. If he came freely, yes, of course. But this was her life and Nick was no trophy to show around.  
It was their life.  
Weird as it was. Including an AI bonded to her lover, another AI connected to the first, and another man who shared the same link to a computer as Nick.  
Yes, it was weird, but it was her world.  
And she loved it just the way it was.

Outside, Karr settled down with a satisfied rumble. His driver was where he was needed, and it didn’t include hanging upside down on a thin wire and stealing something. Nick’s presence inside him changed, mellowing, becoming more supple, less edgy, and Karr smiled as the bluish light of his partner’s ‘soul’ seemed to glow from within.  
They would stay for a while. He didn’t mind. He was actually glad. Alex needed Nick, and Nick needed to be there for her, be someone else, let part of his guard down. Karr would watch over both of them and it felt very good to be needed this way.  
The blue light intensified again and Karr’s smile turned a bit more sarcastic.  
Well, not for that, he mused and erected a basic block. Not for this. Nick was very well able to perform on his own.  
Another block was added to the first.  
Karr chuckled darkly and turned his attention away from his now otherwise occupied driver, doing a system check instead.  
Much safer.


End file.
